Cerritos College
Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

Talon Marks

Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

Talon Marks

Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

Talon Marks

It’s time to move on from racial slurs

Racial slurs are things of the past and that’s what they should be remembered as, crude phrases from bygone eras. These crude remarks should have no place in our society today or tomorrow.

These racial slurs, comments, and jokes are funneled through our favorite entertainers.

People who make racial slurs or comments to people of their own race can’t be excluded either. Just because they’re from that race doesn’t make it right for them to say those words.

For example, people from the African-American community still used the n-word today more commonly that it should be used. The usage of the n-word is being used daily. You can find it in songs and social media and even in the movies we watch.

Whether or not variations of this particular slur have been modernized for friendly use, the fact remains that the context surrounding the n-word renders its usage completely inappropriate.

Its usage helps the African-American youth culture identify with one another, yet to those who’ve experienced the civil rights movement and the horrors of the n-word, it recalls a time of extreme racism.

Racial slurs aren’t just limited to African-Americans. They occur in all ethic and national groups: Hispanics, Caucasians, Middle Easterners, Europeans, and Asians.

Many people in society are desensitized to racial slurs and comments, giving the impression that the offensive words are right to use. This offensive language has evolved to being socially acceptable for certain social groups.

Using any racial slur, no matter what race, can be insensitive to some people of that particular race. Those racial comments can open up old wounds that should have healed a long time ago.

People, no matter what race they are from, should not keep racial slurs/comments relevant. To those who still use them, remember the history of those phrases and remember the damage they caused and the people that were targeted with those racial slurs/comments.

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About the Contributor
Luis Guzman
Luis Guzman, Managing Multimedia Editor
Fall 2014 Hey guys and gals, my name is Luis Guzman. I am journalism student at Cerritos College, I’ve been going there for about three years now. I have been involved with Talon Marks, the newspaper for Cerritos College, for five semesters. I have done mostly everything there is to do in Talon Marks; covering breaking news, page design, video production, podcast production, and photography. I like to read in my off time, mostly books about science fiction and horror. I also like to write fiction of my own, mostly poetry and short fiction. The career I have in mind would involve anything that has to do with creative writing and maybe writing some articles for newspapers here and there.
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It’s time to move on from racial slurs